Attorney General Jeff Sessions

by Sam Kamin, Vicente Sederberg Professor of Marijuana Law and Policy, The University of Denver Sturm College of Law

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last week that he was rescinding the 2013 Cole Memorandum, marijuana policy was once again back on the national stage. The Cole Memo, issued by the Obama Justice Department, stated that those using, producing, or selling marijuana in compliance with robust state regulations would not be targeted by federal prosecutors. With the Cole Memo gone, there was renewed concern that state-level marijuana law reform could be undone by federal enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The reaction against Sessions’s action was swift. Republican Senator Cory Gardner took to the floor of the Senate, condemning Sessions’s decision as a broken promise. Senator Gardner also announced that that he would block all Justice Department nominations until the Attorney General made good on his pledge to defer to the states on marijuana policy. Others on both sides of the aisle made similar calls on Sessions to respect the will of the voters in the 29 states that made marijuana legally available for at least some adults.

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a “last chance” warning to several “sanctuary cities.” The letters - sent to Cook County, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – informed local officials that their policies regarding investigation of an individual’s immigration status, or their reporting of the same, may be in violation of federal law. Further, if they do not provide additional assurances that they are in compliance with the specified federal law by October 27th, they risk losing certain law enforcement grants (Byrne/JAG funds) that the Department of Justice (DOJ) administers to localities to augment their policing, equipment, prosecution, corrections, drug treatment plans, victim or witness programs, or other related efforts.

These ominous letters, with accompany rhetoric from the Attorney General, continue the Trump Administration’s months-long campaign against cities that have exercised their constitutionally-protected prerogative to decline participation in federal immigration enforcement efforts. As has become routine for Sessions, this latest round includes the same misrepresentations linking immigrants and criminality that he and the President have consistently spewed, with the Attorney General repeating the falsehood that sanctuary policies make cities more dangerous.